Let me preface this post by saying that I am a huge fan of the ABC series “Lost”. I love the way the show constantly keeps you guessing. The characters development is great and the subtle yet always very deliberate way of slowly revealing clues is awesome. I look forward each week to watching Lost on Thursdays, which amusingly is the day I write this post.

Anyways, to the game.

Lost: Via Domus, Latin for “The Way Home” is an action adventure game based on the ABC hit series of the same name. (Minus the Latin) You play the role of a random survivor of Oceanic flight 815, who like so many wonderful game protagonists, has lost his memory. It is your job to figure out who you are and how to get home. Gameplay involves Resident Evil-style fetch quests and puzzle solving. The television shows' integral flashbacks are included, and due to the amnesia, are just as revealing to the character as they are to the player. The story takes place during the first 70 days of the show if Wikipedia is to be believed. The player explores locations seen in the show, such as the beach camp, the dark territory, the Flame, the Black Rock and the Swan Station. The player also interacts with some of the major characters of the television show; Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Mikhail, Ben, Juliet and Locke, among others. Trading with other survivors and taking photos with a camera is also part of the gameplay.



Gameplay:

Gameplay is standard third person, run around-pick stuff up, talk to people action adventure gaming or TPRAPSUTPAAG for short. You have a backpack with a limited number of slots to store items you gather thru out the game. Items you gather all have a monetary value that you use within the trading/barter system in the game. For example, let’s say you need a torch to navigate a dark cave, you can trade a stack of coconuts to sawyer for a torch. Like I mentioned earlier, your character has amnesia, and periodically had flashbacks which allow him to remember bits of his past. The key to revealing the important facts during your memories is your camera. During your flashbacks you will be able to take pictures and the goal is to capture a picture of what is important during each flashback. It takes a little time to get good at and sometimes the use of zoom and focus can be a pain, but it is fun none the less. I don’t understand though why during your flashbacks the focus is manual, yet during the real-time parts of the game, the focus is automatic. Anyways, the game is broken up into episodes just like the TV show, and also just like the TV show, each episode ends with a cliffhanger and starts with a recap of the last episode. This makes the game feel much more like being in the show itself. Camera control takes a little getting used to, since the camera automatically re-centers its pitch if you take your thumb off the right analog stick. So if you are trying to look at something on the ground in third person, you have to hold the analog stick down and use your other hand to inspect the item. There is also the option to go into first person, which helps with the problem too. Puzzles play a part is most adventure games and the same is true here, albeit so far the only puzzles I have run across have all been the same re-fuse an electricity panel to divert power to where you need it to go puzzle, or REPDPWNTGP.

Grade: A-, Camera angle auto re-centering is a pain, repetitive fuse puzzles.



Graphics:

Graphics seem on par for the course. The course being a video game based off a TV show/Movie/Comic Book. The scenery is done very well and some of the dynamic lighting you see in the jungle is beautiful. The character designs are a mixed bag. The facial likeness to each character from the TV show is done very well, even Jacks constant head-nodding while he talks is present in the character design, but everything else about the characters seem quickly thrown together. The hair is a good example.. holy crap the hair design is shitty. Sayid has this hairnet looking jheri curl thing going on, Claire has basically one layer of hair and Desmond’s hair looks like it was broadsided by a blur filter in Photoshop. Hurley also looks kinda odd to me as well. In the show Hurley has a double chin but has a definitive ending point where is folds under. In the game it all kinda runs together from his chin to his body making him look even more fat than he does in the show, almost frog-like.

Grade: B, Scenery is great, hair is crap, Hurley looks like a frog.





Sound:

The audio in the game is the standard music and sounds from the show. The voice acting is decent though not all authentic. The actors for Ben Linus (Michael Emerson), Mikhail Bakunin (Andrew Divoff), Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim), Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick), Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin), and Tom (M. C. Gainey) all provided voice work for the game, while the rest of the major characters are provided by stand-ins. I don’t quite understand why all of the main actors didn’t provide voices for their characters. The game was developed with the support of ABC and the creator of the show, so why didn’t they get the actors to do the voices? Although until reading that some people had stand ins, I thought Jack, Hurley and Kate’s voices were authentic. Charlie, Sawyer and Sayid on the other hand a pretty easy to notice as stand-ins.

Grade: B, Stand in voice actors for main show characters.

Overall:

As a whole I would say that I recommend this game to fans of the TV show. People who do not know the back-story of the show or the characters will not get as much out of the gaming experience in my opinion. The ability to freely wander the islands locations and interact with the characters from the show is great fun for people who watch the show and want to know more and wish they could explore the mysteries of the Dharma Initiative and Hanso Foundation. For people who know nothing of the show it will seem very shallow and jumpy as far as events go.

Grade: B+

Decent TPRAPSUTPAAG with a few problems. Fans of the show should pick the game up, everyone else you won’t miss much.